A Tick Tock Adjustment

A few weeks ago, I put together a macro photo of the insides of a Longines lady’s wristwatch. At the time, I thought it was good enough for Competition Season.

Yeah, it’s good enough.

But long-time readers of my blog will know right away that I can’t settle for “just good enough.”

Never stop at “Just Good Enough” when taking pictures

I just can’t. And the more I looked at the Tick Tock Symphonette picture, the more I wanted to re-shoot it.

So I did. I attached the watch innards to a modular grip, and angled the watch in various ways. Then I slapped that Nikkor medical lens onto my Nikon Df, and took some pictures.

We’re getting there. For sure.

But I wanted something out of this. I wanted to show those synthetic ruby “jewels” that a good wristwatch possesses. Horology trivia tidbit – when a watch says it has a “17 jewel movement,” that means that the watch has synthetic rubies inside its mechanism so that the gears turn – for lack of a better term – like clockwork.

I wanted those jewels to show up in the photo. And to demonstrate that I had photographed a tiny wristwatch to the average viewer, I tried to make sure that the brand name appeared in the photo in some way, shape or form.

And after several tries last night … and a few “get out of bed because I can’t sleep and this is bugging me” shots this morning …

I got this little treasure.

This. So much this. So, so, so much this.

You can see six of the 17 red stones in that photo – three on the barrel bridge, one on the hairspring mechanism, and two under the hairspring mechanism. See, this is what happens when you watch the Wristwatch Revival YouTube channel as background entertainment. You ABSORB knowledge.

So, yeah. This moves into my short pile right now. For sure.

And I’m definitely good with that.